The port strike is over. Here’s what happens next

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CNN
—

It took just three days for one side to blink and the potentially crippling attack on ports on the East and Gulf Coasts of the United States to come to an end, likely causing only limited damage to the American economy.

Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, the union that represents 50,000 members covered by the contract with the United States Maritime Alliance, were back in action early Friday after the two sides reached an agreement on the central dispute in the strike, which began early Tuesday – the extent of the wage increases.

The work stoppage threatened to disrupt supply chains, causing shortages of some consumer goods and supplies needed to keep U.S. factories running. In addition, the flow of many American exports was temporarily disrupted, jeopardizing sales abroad for some US companies.

However, the damage was relatively minor as the strike only lasted three days, particularly because many shippers had rushed to move their goods through ports before the strike began at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, a deadline that had been known for months was.

The maritime alliance, which goes by the acronym USMX, agreed to a pay increase of $4 an hour for union members, on top of the current base wage of $39 an hour, an immediate increase of just over 10%, said a person familiar with the deal. Thereafter, union members will receive additional raises of $4 per hour each year for the life of the tentative six-year contract. This increases the salary by a total of $24 per hour or by over the term of the contract Overall 62%.

The union was prepared to consider the $4-an-hour deal before the strike, union leader Harold Daggett said on the picket line outside the Port of New York and New Jersey early Tuesday, shortly after the strike began. But when the company countered with an offer of $3 an hour, he colorfully rejected it and joined his members in launching the first strike since 1977.

But on Thursday, the USMX agreed to their offer and the strike came to a quick end.

Once there was an agreement on wages, both sides were keen to get workers back to work as quickly as possible, although there is still work to be done on the rest of the contract.

Ships lay anchored off the coast, waiting to enter ports from Maine to Texas to load and unload goods. The workers, who were not paid during the strike and received no strike benefits from the union, were anxious to limit their loss of income. Therefore, it only made sense for both sides to suspend the strike and extend the previous contract until January 15 while the sides negotiated the remaining details.

However, it will take a while before the flow of goods returns to normal. Ahead of the strike, various logistics experts had said it would take three to five days for the situation to recover from a single day when ports were closed.

For example, the Ports of New York and New Jersey, the largest port affected and the third-busiest port in the country by cargo volume, and the Port of Virginia told shippers that their gates would remain closed to trucks on Friday. The two ports are working to move containers to position themselves as quickly as possible so that they can move around their area.

Typically, containers can be loaded directly from ships onto trucks, but they are often stacked on the port site waiting to be picked up and transported. Become trucks will be allowed into the gates from Saturday. Other ports are trying to extend weekend hours to deal with the backlog.

Of course, a three-day shutdown is not uncommon, even if this is the first strike in almost half a century. Extreme weather conditions can also lead to downtime. In fact, several of the affected ports in the Southeast had already been closed prior to the attack due to Hurricane Helene.

Although there was talk that the attack would impact hurricane recovery efforts, there was almost no impact on the delivery of relief supplies to the storm’s victims. All ships calling at these ports are foreign ships coming from overseas ports. Under current U.S. maritime law, these ships are not permitted to transport goods from one U.S. port to another.

Thursday’s agreement likely marks the end of the strike, but does not rule out the door to a new strike in the future. Once finalized, the final text of the full contract must be ratified by rank-and-file members of the union before it can come into force.

If members vote against the deal, the strike could begin again. And such a rejection of a temporary employment agreement is not uncommon.

Just last month, the International Association of Machinists and aircraft manufacturer Boeing (BA) reached a tentative agreement that union leaders recommended their 33,000 members accept. Leadership even called it the best deal they had ever negotiated with the company. But union members voted almost unanimously to reject it and continued to strike since September 13th.